How to Find Inspiration When You Need to Get Motivated

Everyone lacks motivation from time to time. Often this lack
of motivation is directly related to the way in which you             
are looking at a task. If you view a task as an
inconvenience or as something that really doesn’t interest
you, you will have a difficult time getting motivated to
accomplish the task. The truth of the matter is that all of
us must do some things that are either an inconvenience or
something that really doesn’t interest us sometimes. So how
do you get motivated to do those things when you feel
unmotivated to accomplish them?

First, let us look at what motivation is. The Webster
dictionary definition of motivation implies that motivation,
although it frequently comes from within, and is also the
result of external stimulus. A good example of an external
stimulus is the raise you might receive from your employer.

Employees who think they are coming up for a raise are more
motivated and will perform better in the weeks prior to the
possibility of the raise than any other time during their
employment. Employers use raises and other incentives to
motivate their employees to reach peak performance and to
accomplish whatever tasks they are assigned, whether that
task interests the employee or not. But how do you become
motivated without an external stimulus?

Inspiration is a self-generated force that motivates you to
action. Inspiration comes entirely from within you. It is
the result of having the desire and the feeling of
excitement about any task you might need to accomplish,
whether or not that task is something you really want to do.

Moreover, inspiration becomes a genuine choice you make by
the way you view a task. If you have the attitude of
“I have to do this because I was told to do it” you will
be less inspired to accomplish it than if you were to think,
“I want to do it because that’s what I want to do.”
The way you think about a task, your attitude toward it,
will affect your inspiration, and therefore your motivation.

Inspiration is not just some divine gift bestowed upon
certain people from the heavens, as many religious doctrines
teach. Inspiration is a gift we all possess, regardless of
our religious beliefs; although it has been found that
your beliefs do affect your inspiration. But the secret to
inspiration is to be found in switching how you think about
the task at hand. Again, if you think about the task along
the line of something “I have to do” you will be less
inspired to accomplish it and will generally just go through
the motions to accomplish it, with very little, if any,
internal gratification.

An important note to make here is that gratification feeds
inspiration. Gratification and inspiration are related.
Gratification takes place when you have accomplished a task
and get that feeling of satisfaction within yourself.

Gratification is that sense of wellbeing for a job well done
that you experience and it will fuel your inspiration for
the next task. In addition, gratification can be internal
evidence of your inspiration. Another important note about
inspiration is that it is compounded with each success.

Desire is another element of inspiration. Desire stresses
strength of feeling and a strong intention toward a goal or
aim. Much like gratification, desire is fuel to inspiration.
In fact, desire nurtures inspiration. And the more desire
you create within yourself toward accomplishing your goals
the more inspired you will become, not only toward your
goals, but your life in general.

Finding inspiration when you need to get motivated is a
matter of knowing the difference between inspiration and
motivation, as well as their relationship to each other. As
mentioned earlier, motivation can come from both inside and
outside of us. External motivation comes in a wide variety
of forms, from paying the bills to performing well on the
job to get that raise. Inspiration, on the other hand, is
strictly internal and comes from conscious decisions and
attitudes about a task, the environment, and your life.

Inspiration is not concerned with the external stimulus
because inspiration is a higher level of functioning and
thought processing that is highly dependent on your attitude
and desire to be successful. 

Source: http://www.getmotivatedstaymotivated.com/

How to Accomplish a Goal

STEPS:

1. Set a realistic goal. Take a big dream, like “I want to be famous”, and break it down into smaller, more manageable steps, like “I want to star in a science fiction movie”, “I want to go to three auditions a week”, “I want to move to another city” and “I want to save $5000 so I can move.”

2. Plan ahead. Once you’ve broken down your goal into pieces, write down the steps on a piece of paper to make sure you have everything thought out. One of the worst things that can happen is your almost to the point of your goal, but you’re not sure what to do next. Also, give yourself deadlines for each step. Otherwise, you’ll end up procrastinating and never achieving your dream.

3. Brainstorm ideas. Are there different ways to reach your goal? Write everything down that you can think of in three minutes, no matter how silly or impossible it may seem. For example, you could go to acting school, or maybe you could land a spot in a reality show that would get you started.

4. Define and describe your goal. Write down when you want to achieve it. Write down the reasons why you want it. Write down what it would feel like after you have achieved it. Figure out exactly what it will take to get it. Be realistic about the time things will take. Many people don’t allow themselves enough time, and give up too soon.

5. Be positive. Your goal should be written and have positive intent about what you want to bring into your life. This is very important, since the focus of your goal should not be centered around describing a problem you want to eliminate.

6. Draw on all your past achievements that are relevant to your goal. No matter how small you perceive your achievements, list them anyway. It could be something small such as joining a healthy eating mailing list, to coming home from work late, yet preparing a tasty nutritious meal for your family in under 30 minutes. Once you review your list, you will be amazed at how all those small achievements soon add up, and how much you are really capable of.

7. Visualize. Close your eyes and imagine yourself accomplishing your goals. Where are you? How did you get there? How do you feel? Do this often. Don’t get swayed easily with the noise and happenings going on outside. Put your attention on what you are trying to achieve. Remember the goal and you will have control over the discomforts and difficulties.

8. Listen to your internal dialogue. What you are saying inside affects you physically, emotionally and mentally. Is your defense system inside trying to make you stick to your past, limiting beliefs and perceptions? Take over and challenge your inner critics. Monitor any excuses you might be making in relation to your goal. For example, saying ‘I don’t finish work until late and won’t have time to cook!’ You must recognize that if you are truly passionate about your goal, it is up to you to make time.

9. Make a list of your personal strengths in relation to your goal. For instance, if you have a healthy eating goal you might want to consider strengths such as your level of commitment to eating healthily, or the fact that you enjoy cooking and experimenting with new recipes or even that you are an excellent cook. The list of personal strengths you can draw up is endless.

10. Seek help. Find the information, skills and knowledge that you need from other people, books, and audio or video programs. Speed up your learning process by emulating what other successful people have done. You save time and get results faster.

11. Create benchmarks or milestones. A benchmark is something you can use to measure your progress and know you’re on track. For example, you can write “The first stage of reaching my goal will be done when I’m in the Entertainment section of the newspaper!” or “I’ll know I’ve reached my goal of being famous when I’m a guest on Oprah.”

12. Make a timeline. Draw a horizontal timeline with a dot at each end. The left end represents now, and the right end represents a point in the future. Specify what you want to happen and when, from now until then.

13. Be passionate. Striving towards a goal without passion is like a fire which slowly runs out of fuel to burn. Get excited, this will mean that you will love what you are doing. Methodically check your behaviors against impassioned dreams developed as a child. Always share the child within amongst your potential peers. This empowers the Law of Attraction that shapes the dreams of the child into the creative force of the adult.

14. Revisit, evaluate, and if you need to, adjust your goals. Keep a written record of your goals in a place where you’ll remember to read them every day. They’ll change and adjust over time as your life does, so keep them up-to-date.

15. Consider new opportunities and options that come your way. Sometimes things have a way of unintentionally leading you exactly where you want to go.

16. Start working towards your goals today. Ask yourself, “What can I do today to get one step, however small, closer to achieving my goals?”

17. Persevere. Now that you’ve got the momentum going, don’t let it stop! Some steps may seem less exciting than others, but make sure to stick to your plan until the end!

Source: http://www.wikihow.com/Accomplish-a-Goal